Volunteers working on the 19th century workers housing at Radcliffe Tower, April 2015

This month (the week beginning the 13 April) Dig Greater Manchester returned to Radcliffe Tower in Bury for the first of our flagship community digs this year. This is the fourth season of excavations on this late medieval and post-medieval manorial site since 2012, and each time the archaeology story has become more complex. Our aim this year in returning to the site is twofold. As a flagship community dig it is designed to run for five weeks and be open to volunteers and members of the public from across the city region. Along with a second dig, at Buile Hill in Salford during September, it is the culmination of four years of research into community archaeology methodologies, the social impact of the DGM project and into the Manchester city region’s industrialisation.